I suppose it was bound to happen! Early in 2016 Sir Peter Blake painted a couple of portraits of his good friend Eric Clapton and these appeared on the cover of the programme for Clapton’s seventieth birthday celebration concerts at Madison Square Garden and The Royal Albert Hall in May 2016. However, the official album of the concerts “Slowhand at 70“–a tripple LP with DVD–did not use the Blake portraits at all. However, two unofficial CD releases included both (please see my previous post on these). Now we know why the “Slowhand at 70” cover didn’t use the Blake portraits–Clapton was saving them for his next studio album “I Still Do“, released on 16th May 2016, exactly one year after the 70th birthday concerts.
Peter Blake’s 2015 portrait of Eric Clapton used on the cover of “I Stil Do”.
The front cover is beautiful in that Clapton and the record company have chosen not to place either the album’s title or Clapton‘s name on it, but rather allow Blake‘s lovely portrait to send the message. This is the second time Clapton has allowed an unadorned portrait to grace the cover of one of his albums–the previous one was 2004’s “Me and Mr Johnson“.
Eric Clapton’s “Me & Mr Johnson” album cover.
I have to thank Guy Minnebach for pointing out that these two covers join Andy Warhol‘s cover for “The Velvet Underground & Nico” and Martin Kann‘s cover for bob hund‘s “Omslag: Martin Kann” as the only covers that have the graphic designer’s/painter’s name on the cover rather than the artists’ or the album’s title.
I think the latest album cover by Sir Peter Blake is one of his best. It emphasises just what a great portraitist he is.
The largest exhibition of the works of the artist known as Banksy opened at the Palazzo Cipolla in Rome on 24th May–4th September 2016. The exhibition is organised by the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro – Italia e Mediterraneo and curated by Stefano Antonelli, Francesca Mezzano and Acoris Andipa and collects works from private collections including paintings, prints, sculptures and – not least in my humble opinion – record and CD cover art and a book cover. There are no works removed from walls.
Acoris Andipa, director of the Andipa Gallery in Knightsbridge, London, which has sold many works by the artist known as Banksy, contacted me in March 2016 to enquire whether I would be willing to lend my collection of records and CDs with Banksy’s cover art to the exhibition. He had been tipped off about my collection by fellow gallerist John Brandler to whom I had once sold some covers. I was flattered by the invitation and agreed.
In return for the loan, my wife and I would be invited to the private showing of the exhibition on 23rd May.
Coincidentally, we had previously booked a trip to Rome at the end of April and we had the opportunity to meet Andipa’s chief assistant Chiara Tognacci with exhibition curator Francesca Mezzano who showed us round the Palazzo Cipolla. We could see the exhibition hall, which was in a very raw state before the carpenters and painters started preparing for the exhibition.
We flew into Rome after lunch on Monday the 23rd Maj and were picked up by limo and driven to our hotel. we had time for a short walk, and relax for an hour and dress for the viewing. Just before 6 p.m. a car collected us and drove us the short distance to the Palazzo Cipolla. We were checked in and given tickets to admit us to the reception after he viewing.
Palazzo Cipolla with the War, Capitalism & Liberty Exhibition.The official poster at the entrance to the Palazzo Cipolla.
We were greeted at the exhibition by the head of the FondazioneTerzo Pilastro, Prof Emmanuele F. M. Emanuele and a group of officials together with Acoris Andipa, who presented us as lenders to the exhibition! We were then free to view the show and were impressed by the breadth of the exhibits, which were arranged by themes – war, capitalism and liberty.
The War, Capitalism & Liberty exhibition’s layout at the Palazzo Cipolla.
The orange area is the entrance hall with several classic Banksy works including four portraits of Kate Moss. The black are is the “war” room that leads to the green area and the first room on the left contains my records and CDs and Nick Cave‘s book “And the Ass Saw the Angel” with its Banksy cover.
Thus 44 records and 28 CDs are on display – all from my personal collection. There was only one small problem. The curators had intended that the records and CDs would be protected by a plexiglass cover. However, this was not ready for the exhibition’s opening, so an armed guard was on duty in the room!
I would like to thank Acoris Andipa for including my collection in this wonderful exhibition.
As I write this, a major exhibition of The Artist Known as Banksy is being planned to open at the Palazzo Cipolla in Rome on 23rd May 2016. The exhibition is called “War, Capitalism and Liberty” is not sanctioned by or involves the artist, will show works from private collections and hopefully many record and CD covers.
Well, hearing about the exhibition prompted me to return to my collection of records and CDs designed by The Artist Known as Banksy or that use his images. I have, for the first time, made a proper catalogue of ALL my records and CDs. I don’t really know why I haven’t done it before!
The urge to catalogue my collection was further stimulated by my most recent purchase of a rare–and, dare I say–classic piece of Banksy‘s art: The infamous spoof on Paris Hilton‘s debut CD “Paris” from 2006. You probably already know the story… Heiress Paris Hilton, apparently not satisfied with being a television and American Society celebrity, decided that she should be a music star too and gathered well-known songwriters and music producers to help her make a CD. Banksy and his compadre DJ Danger Mouse got wind of the project and decided to play a trick on a series of HMV record stores throughout the United Kingdom by placing 500 copies of a CD-rom with music by DJ Danger Mouse in a jewel case with cover art taken from Paris Hilton‘s original CD but with her portrait on the front rendered “topless” and Banksy quotes placed over the pictures on the inside of the booklet. Banksy and his assistants managed to get these spoof CDs onto HMV’s shelves beside the real CDs so that customers buying the album would, by mistake, take the “wrong” version and find DJ Danger Mouse‘s music rather than Paris Hilton‘s. I suspect that many who made this mistake returned to HMV to exchange their “defect” CD for the real thing or to get a refund. No one knows exactly how many of the 500 CDs placed in the HMV stores still exist. Genuine ones have sold at auction for over £3500!
A second edition of 1000 CDs with similar artwork, but with the sticker that was on the outside of the Jewel case on the first 500 copies now smaller and printed at top right on the front of the booklet. For this edition the CD was a proper mastered CD with printed design rather than the CD-rom with “Paris” written on the front that had been included in the HMV version. I got hold of one of these “second pressing” “Paris” CDs soon after it was released in about 2008.
Paris Hilton’s “Paris” CD in its three forms. Left: the original “Paris” cover, centre: Banksy/Danger Mouse HMV version, and right the second pressing of the Banksy/Danger Mouse version.The CDs. Left Banksy/Danger Mouse CD-ROM included in the HMV version of “Paris” and right: the pressed CD included in the second pressing.
So, once the Banksy/Danger Mouse HMV version of the “Paris” CD arrived I invested in a copy of the original Paris Hilton CD as a comparison.
Now with my set of “Paris” CDs complete, I set about compiling a list of all my records and CDs with Banksy artwork.
The earliest Banksy artwork I have is not on a record or CD at all. It is on the cover of Nick Cave‘s 1989 book “And the Ass Saw the Angel“, originally published by Black Spring Press in 1989 and reprinted by Penguin Books the following year. I have the Penguin edition.
The cover of the Penguin edition of Nick Cave’s book “And the Ass Saw the Angel”.
The first record cover to have Banky‘s art was released almost ten years later, in 1998, and was for Banksy‘s friend Jamie Eastman‘s Hombre record label. It was by the hip Hop group One Cut and was an EP entitled “Cut Commander“. One Cut, sometimes written as OneCut were a trio formed in Bristol in 1989. Band members were Riski Le Bizniz, MC Reds and Master Chef and their music is described as being made up of “crusty beats and deep sub bass”. Jamie Eastman continued to release One Cut‘s EPs, singles and sole LP “Grand Theft Audio” as well as a compilation CD “Hombremix” remixed by Riski Le Bizniz despite having left Bristol for London around 1990; in total six releases plus two promotional 12″ singles.
Banksy‘s official designs appear on only four record labels. Hombre Records owned by his friend and former flatmate, Jamie Eastman, Blowpop Records from Bristol, owned by John Stapleton. The third label that Banksy has designed for is Wall of Sound Records and the final one was Parlophone Records which commissioned him to design the cover for Blur‘s 2003 album “Think Tank” and three singles and CDs/DVDs from that release. Interestingly, Blowpop Record’s office was in the same Bristol building as Banksy‘s studio and in 1999 Stapleton just popped in to ask Banksy if he would like to design the cover for a promotional version of The Capoeira Twins first single “4 x 3/Truth Will Out“. Banksy took a stencil he had used on a Bristol wall to advertise Blowpop Records and handsprayed 100 covers.
Promo for The Capoeira Twins “4 x 3“. 100 copies handstencilled by Banksy.
The Capoeira Twins were unknown and this was their first single. The promotional copies were sent out to DJs, record stations and music journalists, but the record was not a commercial success and the majority of the promotional copies just got lost. A few have surfaced and are becoming increasingly sought after. This was the sole cover Banksy did for Blowpop.
The two most interesting Banksy designs for Wall of Sounds Records are the promotional copies of Norwegian group Röyksopp‘s first LP “Melody A.M.“, released in 2002. The double LP was housed in a sleeve once again handsprayed by Banksy.
Numbered promo for Röyksopp’s 2002 album “Melody A.M.” – handstencilled by Banksy.
The second Wall of Sound album with special interest is the label’s compilation triple LP “Off the Wall – 10 years of Wall of Sound“. The cover, designed by Banksy, shows some of the artists who recorded for the label and, at far right on the cover, with his back to the camera is a man purported to be Banksy himself!
The cover of Wall of Sound Records’ compilation “Off the Wall – 10 Years of Wall of Sound” – with Banksy at far right with his back to the camera.
The list of officially accredited covers thus includes those covers for these four record labels. (Note: The Bad Magic label, which released all the Blak Twang records and CDs is part of the Wall of Sound group).
In 2009 Banksy terminated his association with manager Steve Lazarides and nominated Pest Control to be his official spokespeople. Pest Control has been unwilling to assign accreditation to Banksy‘s record cover art, so I have had to guess which covers are “official” and which are not. There are some that I am not sure about. First the “official” cover list:
List of Banksy’s cover art that are officially recognized.
Then there are several covers that I cannot be certain are “official”:
List of covers which I cannot be certain are “official”.
And, the list of those covers whose artwork has definitely not been authorized:
The unauthorized covers list.
So, as of April 2016, I know of a total of seventy records, CDs, DVDs with Banksy‘s cover art. While I have included Nick Cave‘s book “The Ass Saw the Angel“, however, I have not included Banksy‘s film “Exit Through the Gift Shop“. Perhaps this should make item number seventy one.
Interest in everything by Banksy has increased since 2010 and record covers are – as Andy Warhol foresaw – a way for the ordinary person to collect fine art. I hope records and CDs with Banksy designs will continue to be affordable. However, many covers, particularly those LP and 12″ covers, have become very scarce, while CDs remain affordable. One Cut‘s recordings were not released in very large numbers, the two handsprayed covers are already considered fine art prints as are Dirty Funker‘s “Let’s Get Dirty” covers with their Banksy portraits of Kate Moss. In particular, the first pressing without the title strips is extremely rare.
First pressing of Dirty Funker’s “Let’s Get Dirty” Single with Banksy’s portrait of Kate Moss.
The second pressing had the title banner across Kate’s eyes.
Banksy‘s and DJ Danger Mouse‘s “Paris” CD is also difficult to find, even the second pressing has increased in value. Complete sets of Dirty Funker‘s “Future” single with “Radar Rat” on the covers and DJ Danger Mouse‘s “Keep It Real/Laugh Now” are commanding high prices on auction sites.
Five cover variations of Dirty Funker’s “Future” single, featuring Radar Rat.DJ Danger Mouse’s “Keep It Real / Laugh Now” covers.
An even rarer variation of the “Keep It Real/Laugh Now” single is a test pressing whose cover has a white background.
In February 2004, the magazine The Big Issue included a compilation CD entitled “Peace Not War” with Banksy‘s cover art. The CDs were taped to the magazine with sellotape and most, if not all covers were damaged when the tape was removed. This CD has become extremely rare.
“Peace Not War” compilation CD given away with The Big Issue with Banksy’s “Girl clutching a bomb” image on the cover and CD.
I am considering returning to the subject of Banksy’s record cover art with a picture discography of all his covers. That will take some considerable time, so I wouldn’t hold my breath.
On 26th February 2016 Jeff Wootton (born 12 May 1987) released his first solo album entitled “The Way the Light“. The album, is released on the British Sympathy for Vinyl (not to be confused with the American Sympathy for the Record Industry) label. Well, I had not heard of Jeff Wootton but a quick gander at his CV reveals that he is a demon guitarist. When Noel Gallagher left Oasis, Liam Gallagher recruited him to his new group Beady Eye. Wootton has played along side Damon Albarn in Gorillaz and on Albarn‘s solo project as well as with Brian Eno,Noel Gallagher (appearing in Gallagher‘s 2015 video “Ballad of the Mighty“). He also travelled to Mali together with several other musicians, including Damon Albarn, Brian Eno and Nick Zinner with a group called Africa Express to record a version of Terry Riley‘s “In C“–a work I first heard in the mid sixties.
Jeff Wootton’s 2016 album “The Way the Light”
“The Way the Light“album is released in a limited edition of 500 copies (mine is No. 403) which include a limited edition book with ten new Damien Hirst spin paintings–one for each album track. The gatefold album cover also has one of the Damien Hirst paintings on the rear cover.
Damien Hirst’s spin painting on the rear cover of the “The Way the Light” album (almost identical to that illustrating track 7 in the booklet.
The booklet contains a number of classy photos of Wootton playing his guitar (a Stratocaster) and another is used on the centre spread of the gatefold cover.
Centre spead of the album cover. Is this a Gibson guitar?
And here are the ten Damien Hirst spin paintings mounted together.
I have not yet been able to find any details of how Damien Hirst came to cooperate with Jeff Wootton on this album project. This is Damien Hirst’s 28th record cover.
Well, well, well! This is a surprise! A record on ventriloquism! What on earth is it doing in my record collection?
As anyone can see the cover picture is a pastiche of Peter Blake‘s and Jann Haworth‘s “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” cover, but that’s not why I bought it. I really love the “drum” with the title “Constable O’Rourke’s Wooden Hearts Club Band“! That adds something extra that is not often found on other pastiches. And there, just right of centre is Jack himself; in front of just over forty ventriloquists’ dummies.
The story begins with Chris Jagger‘s 1974 album “The Adventures if Valentine Vox the Ventriloquist“.
Chris Jagger’s “The Adventures of Valentine Vox the Ventriloquist”. Asylum 7E-1009, 1974.
I started doing some research on Peter Blake‘s record covers and mailed Chris Jagger for details about how this LP cover came about. He told me that he had come across the book “The Life and Adventures of Valentine Vox”, by Henry Cockton (1807-1853). The book was originally published in 1840 in installments and in 1842 in a single volume with sixty illustrations by Onwhyn) and Jagger liked the title and decided to use it for his second album. Peter Blake apparently supplied the ventriloquist’s dummy. So, I got hold of a late 19th Century copy of the book, unfortunately though not the illustrated version.
Then curiosity took hold. I found out that there is (or was) a ventriloquist by the name of Valentine Vox and started to search for information about him, but turned up little. But my searches did find a museum of ventriloquism at Vent Haven, Kentucky, and I contacted the curator Lisa Sweasy for information. She told be that at least six ventriloquists have used the stage name Valentine Vox, or variations on it, such as Valentine Fox or Valentine Faux and wondered which I was interested in. Of course I had no idea! So I suggested the most recent. She informed me of a Jack Riley that used the used the Valentine Vox alias and told me that he had written a book on ventriloquism called “I Can See Your Lips Moving–the History and Art of Ventriloquism“, published in 1993 under that name. However, Riley had also appeared using the stage name Jack O’Reilly and had recorded the LP entitled “You Can Be a Ventriloquist“, in 1969. It has since been re-issued as a CD.
Now to find out more about the mysterious Jack Riley. Apparently, he was born in England in 1939. He moved to America and–at some point–to Toronto, Canada, where the “You Can Be a Ventriloquist” was released. In 2003 he married fellow ventriloquist Eyvonne Carter. That’s what I have been able to find out so far.
And, before anyone starts to ask–No, I’m not going to learn to be a ventriloquist. But researching a record cover can turn up some weird and wonderful stuff.
As readers of this blog will have noticed, I have been spending an alarming amount of time adding to my collection of record covers with Peter Blake‘s art. I recently noticed that I had failed to describe two somewhat rare items–the boxed sets of seven inch singles of Eric Clapton‘s “24 Nights” album and a similar box of Paul Weller‘s “Stanley Road” album.
“24 Nights” Promotional Box Set [Warner Brothers – EC3] The “24 Nights” boxed set of seven singles, each in it’s own picture sleeve, was released as a promotional set by Warner Brothers, who also produced a limited edition lithograph with Peter Blake‘s drawing from the concert series.
I hadn’t realised until very recently that each single had its own specific cover all using Peter Blake‘s handwriting as the font for the track titles.
Here are the seven singles’ front designs:
And here are the reverse designs:
“Stanley Road” Limited Edition Box Set [Go Discs! 850 070-7] There were two limited editions of the “Stanley Road” album–this box set of six seven inch singles and a twelve inch box set containing a booklet, a 7-inch print and the CD. The Singles box also contained a 7-inch version of the booklet and a print. Once again Peter Blake had designed individual covers for each of the singles:
The front covers:
Once again Peter Blake‘s characteristic handwriting was used for the titles. And the rear covers all had individual designs too:
These thirteen covers should thus be added to the list of Peter Blake‘s record cover art.
I shall be returning to a deeper analysis of each of Peter Blake‘s individual record art in future posts.
I have not been able to find any record or CD covers with Banksy art since the release of Danger Mouse‘s set of limited edition 12″ singles “Keep It Real/Laugh Now” in 2008, so in December 2015 I was surprised to see an LP advertised that uses a modified version of Banksy‘s “Flower Thrower” image where a ball had been substituted for the bunch of flowers.
This record is purported to be a test pressing for Junichi Masuda‘s unofficial album entitled “Pokémon“released in 2015 with a sort of “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” pastiche cover. The album was released on red/white swirl vinyl, which I suspect is the reference for the red/white ball being thrown. The test pressing album, however, was only available on black vinyl.
Junichi Masuda (born 12th January, 1968) is extremely influential in the field of computer games and is a director of the Pokémon company and designs games for the company and composes music to accompany them.
Apparently, the idea for the test pressings of this album was to stencil 100 covers with the “Flower Thrower” image but something happened during the spraying and (I suppose) the stencil was damaged so the final ten copies were sprayed with a stylised rabbit chasing a balloon – a pastiche (to my mind unsuccessful) of Banksy‘s “Girl With Balloon” artwork.
This one, however, seems too far from the Banksy original for my taste. I was lucky to be able to get hold of the “Flower Thrower” version at a reasonable price but this “Rabbit” version would cost between $300-400, which helps solve my quandry as to whether or not to include one in my collection.
In June 2013 I bought a press kit from the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Andy Warhol exhibition entitled “Supernova: Stars, Deaths & Disasters” which ran from July 8th to October 22nd, 2006. The exhibition was guest curated by film director David Cronenberg and the press pack contained two tickets for the exhibition, the hardcover catalogue and a CD entitled “Cronenberg on Warhol” housed in a gatefold sleeve with Warhol‘s “Elvis I” on the front and “Elvis II” on the rear. In addition to the press pack the Art Gallery of Ontario produced a limited edition poster of the “Elvis I and II” in an edition of (I think) 1000 and a set of four pins advertising the exhibition.
There are copies of the print on Ebay offered at over CAD 2000, which seems excessive for such a large run of prints. But, until recently, I had never heard of the four pin set.
I thought these were unusual and rather cool so I bought myself a set to add to the press pack. I have decided to pass on the Elvis I & II print as it is on the CD cover.
During the past few months I have been concentrating on Sir Peter Blake’s record cover art and trying to do some in-depth research to find out how his record covers came about, who made the commissions, which techniques he used, upon which photographs were illustrations based and any other facts, relevant or not. I have tried to contact the artists involved where possible. I have also nurtured a lust to get hold of the one item of Peter Blake‘s record cover art that I had not managed to find. I refer to the Genesis Publication’s set “24 Nights – The Limited Edition. Music by Eric Clapton / Drawings by Peter Blake“. This box set included two books – a “Scrapbook“, an A4 sized book of Peter Blake‘s drawings and photographs and a 58-page “Commentary” by Derek Taylor – some “memorabilia” comprising a badge, guitar strings, four plectra and a backstage pass from the Journeyman tour and two photographs of Eric Clapton. This set was published in a numbered edition of 3,500 copies as well as a further 200 copies numbered in Roman numerals “for review purposes”. All copies were signed by both Peter Blake and Eric Clapton. Published in 1991, it soon sold out.
The cast: Eric Clapton (born 30th March 1945)- legendary guitarist and lover of the Blues. Peter Blake (born 25th June 1932) – equally legendary artist. Derek Taylor (1932-2008) – Journalist, author, friend of the above and former press officer for The Beatles. Brian Roylance (1945-2005) – founder of Genesis Publications and friend of all three above. Roger Forrester (born August 1949) – Eric Clapton’s manager until 1998.
The 24 night series of concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall were to be the finale to Eric Clapton‘s “Journeyman” world tour that played 153 concerts in 78 cities around the world over 14 months and were seen by almost 2.5 million fans. The tour was a promotional tour for Eric’s 1989 album “Journeyman” and his record company Reprise Records, a Warner Brothers subsidiary, planned a live album to be released after the tour. Eric Clapton knew Brian Roylance (1945-2005) the founder of Genesis Publications and suggested a documentation of the tour. Warner Brothers commissioned Peter Blake to paint a portrait of Eric Clapton, and wanted three other artists to do the same for an album to be called “Four Faces of Eric Clapton” but in the end only Peter Blake was commissioned instead to draw four portraits. Peter Blake had not met Eric at this time.
The Journeyman tour started in Birmingham on January 14th 1990 and ended at the Royal Albert Hall on March 9th 1991. There was a break for Christmas from 13th December 1990 until 31st January 1991 when it would resume in Dublin. The band reconvened in Dublin earlier to rehearse. Brian Roylance wanted Eric Clapton‘s longtime friend Derek Taylor (1932-2008) to write a commentary to the project and asked Derek and his wife Joan to travel to Dublin to be at the rehearsals. Peter Blake arrived in Dublin around the 26th January and had dinner with Roger Forrester who asked Blake if he liked Eric Clapton’s music. Blake replied, “No, I’ve never been a fan. I hate long guitar solos.”
Peter Blake had access all areas to make his sketches and said everyone got so used to him being around that they hardly noticed him. He could sketch freely. He followed Eric Clapton back to England and continued sketching at the Royal Albert Hall and at the two blues concerts at the Brixton Academy on February 21st and 22nd, 1991. Warner Reprise Records got their cover drawing for the “24 Nights” album released on 8th October 1991.
Twenty-five years after the release of the “24 Nights” album and Genesis Publications’ box set I managed to get hold of my own copy of this wonderful set. And thanks to Derek Taylor‘s “Commentary” book included in the set and Peter Blake‘s detailed notes in the “Scrapbook” have helped me piece together this story.
My collection of record cover art by my favourite five artists continues to grow. 2015 provided almost fifty new covers on record and CD. The statistics show there were:
– Twenty-seven covers with Andy Warhol‘s art (eleven on CD) and four covers that were Warhol related – more of those later.
– Five covers (well three really) with Klaus Voormann‘s art,
– Five covers with Peter Blake‘s art
– Three covers with Damien Hirst‘s art
– Two covers with Banksy‘s art
– One cover with Nat Finklestein‘s portrait of Andy Warhol
– One cover with images of diverse pop artists works.
ANDY WARHOL COVERS
There were four really rare covers that I got hold of in 2015. These were:
1. Ultra Violet‘s 1973 album “Ultra Violet“, which I bought in April,
2. A copy of The Rolling Stones‘ “Sticky Fingers” nicely autographed by Andy Warhol,
3. A copy of The Rolling Stones‘ “Love You Live” autographed on the inner spread by Andy Warhol and
4. Carlos Chavez‘ “A Program of Mexican Music” with the rarer blue cover.
Other vinyl releases that I found during the year included.
“Tennessee Williams reading from The Glass Menagerie” with the alternative colour variation, I also bought two copies of The Rolling Stones‘ “Sticky Fingers“, an original US release with the title printed over the belt at the top left of the cover and the 2015 reissue with the working zipper, but with the brass drawpull in the shape of John Paiste’s “tongue” design.
Other LPs included The Velvet Underground‘s “Psychedelic Sounds From the Gymnasium” and two versions of The Velvet Underground‘s “Velvet Underground & Nico” – one a picture disc and the other the limited edition “45th Anniversary edition” with the original torso rear cover picture and a peelable banana on the front. I found a UK pressing of Artie Shaw‘s “Any Old Time“. There was also another bootleg, “In 1966 There Was…“, a double album on red vinyl and the official release “The Velvet Underground Live – With Lou Reed“. I also got hold of a Rolling Stones bootleg “Lonely at the Top“, purported to be a limited edition of only 55 copies. I happened upon a modern box set of Margarita Madrigal‘s “Magic Key to Spanish” with the original book and two LPs in a custom box that, however did not use Warhol’s art anywhere.
I also bought some vinyl singles and EPs: John Lennon‘s “Imagine / It’s So Hard” and “Jealous Guy / Going Down on Love” 7-inch singles, Debbie Harry‘s “In Love With Love” 12-inch picture disc, Diana Ross‘s “So Close / Fool for Your Love” and Paul Anka‘s “Happier / Closing Doors” 7-inch singles.
The CDs included both the Q Magazine various artists releases entitled “Lennon Covered #1” and “Lennon Covered #2“. Other official CDs were The Museum of Modern Art‘s various artists release “Open Ends: Musical Exploration in New York 1967 to 2000“, a first CD re-issue of Moondog‘s “The Story of Moondog” on the Prestige label and David Jones & Bill Shute‘s collection of children’s songs “Widdecombe Fair” with beautiful Warhol art on the gatefold cover and the CD booklet. There was also a promotional CD-r collected by MPHO (MPHO Skeef) with DJ Beware called “MPHO and the Art of Pop, Vol 1” with cover art including pictures of record covers and art works by a variety of American Pop Artists.
Sinner that I am, I also bought six bootleg CDs, three by The Rolling Stones: “Marquee ’71 + Sticky Out“, “Rare Tracks +” and “Stereo Baby“. The latter a three CD set in a foldout cover.
The Warhol-related issues included the bootleg LP of Lou Reed’s & John Cale’s “Songs for Drella” LP featuring Nat Finklestein’s Warhol portrait with tambourine and John Cale‘s live recording of “Two Songs for Drella” with cover portrait of Warhol by Robert Mapplethorpe. I also found a cheap sealed copy of “15 Minutes – Homage to Andy Warhol“. This various artists release includes four LPs, three CDs and prints by the artists featured. I am not really clear as to exactly what relationship, apart from the title, this box set has to Andy Warhol, though.
PETER BLAKE COVERS
This was the area where I expected least and found more than I had ever expected. 2015 turned out to be an exciting year! While there was only one official release with Peter Blake‘s art I found four bootleg CDs. The official release is Mark Knopfler‘s “Tracker” LP which has a picture of Peter Blake‘s painting “I Love You” on its inside spread.
The bootleg CDs were all of concerts by Eric Clapton, who’s 70th birthday was on 30th March 2015. To celebrate this Clapton performed two concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York on May 1st and 3rd – he had intended to play the second concert on May 2nd, but the venue was booked for the New York Rangers playoff. A bootleg tripple CD was released on the Mid Valley label with the complete playlists from both nights entitled “Eric Clapton–Madison Square Garden 2015 – 70th Birthday Celebration” with a cover picture of Eric Clapton painted by Sir Peter Blake earlier in the year. Clapton followed up with seven concerts at London’s Royal Albert Hall between 14th and 23rd May. These concerts were also recorded and released in a 14 CD called “Eric Clapton–Royal Albert Hall 2015” set by Mid Valley using the same cover portrait of Eric Clapton. I managed to find the programme from both concerts on Ebay and Blake’s portrait of Eric Clapton is on both front and rear covers.
Finding these two bootlegs inspired me to look for other bootlegs of Eric Clapton’s live shows. I was amazed to find that what appears to be all of his live appearances – at least since the 1980s – seem to be available on bootlegs. However, only two of the hundreds available appeared to use Peter Blake‘s art. These are CDs of the first and fourth nights of Clapton‘s 1991 “24 Nights” series of concerts at The Royal Albert Hall. So I had to chase those, too.
KLAUS VOORMANN COVERS
I have several times thought that I had collected all of Voormann’s covers but I am continuously proved wrong. 2015 was no exception. The first cover I discovered was Harry Nilsson‘s 1982 LP “Flash Harry“, which has a 5 x 5 cm line drawing of Harry by Klaus Voormann on the rear cover. Then towards the end of the year I saw a copy of 10″ EP by Paddy, Klaus & Gibson called, not unsurprisingly “Paddy, Klaus & Gibson“. These three were the remaining members of Voormann‘s group The Eyes when guitarist/vocalist John Frankland left the band. The trio recorded three singles and it is these six songs that make up this EP. The record is a private pressing organised by orthopaedic surgeon Dr Dieter Hoffmann and only 300 copies were pressed, 100 on red vinyl, 100 on clear vinyl and 100 on back vinyl. In order to support this great effort, I ordered one copy of each vinyl colour! There is Japanese glamrock band called GLAY and Klaus drew the cover image for their 2015 CD “Music Life“.
There was, however, some not so good news – Thorsten Knublauch, from whom I had bought one of the copies of the Paddy, Klaus & Gibson 10″ – told me about a record with cover art by Klaus Voormann that I had never heard of. The record is a recording of a jazz radio programme. The cover picture is of a man lying in a hospital bed connected to drip bottles. The title is “Wer nie im Bett Programm gemacht“, or something like that. So far I haven’t been able to find a copy… So my Klaus Voormann collection is still not complete!
DAMIEN HIRST COVERS
I was surprised to see two promotional folders for Dave Stewart‘s 1992 “Heart of Stone” single appear on Ebay at ridiculously inflated prices. They didn’t sell and eventually the price came down to affordable levels when I hopped in. The CD singles came in A5 folders with slightly different texts and different catalogue numbers – explaining why I had to have both. In addition I found a promotional copy of the The Hours “Narcissus Road” CD with a cover that I had not seen before.
BANKSY’S COVER ART
There do not seem to have been any new record or CD covers that use Banksy’s cover art since 2008. I did manage to get hold of one version of Blur‘s “Think Tank” CD in a box set with postcards. Then in the last days of December I saw a copy of a test pressing of Junichi Masuda’s LP “Pokémon” with a hand sprayed image of Banksy’s “Flower Thrower” but with a coloured ball substituted for the flowers. There are purportedly on 100 copies of this test pressing and I managed to get one relatively cheap-
So, another successful year’s collecting. But I still guess that none of my collections are complete yet. So I look forward to 2016.
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